Houston Texans Are Rumored To Be Considering Alex Smith
To say the Houston Texans are a dumpster fire is an understatement. Yes, the Deshaun Watson off-field issues/controversy has completely come out of the blue, but those bridges between Watson and Houston have been burned a while now. Even before all of the news and alleged rumors about Watson’s off-field stuff, Houston absolutely wasted his talent and pledged loyalty to Bill O’Brien for much too long. Regardless, Houston wants to move on from Watson unquestionably and there will certainly be a market for him if/when he comes back from his legal issues. Hell, even Colin Cowherd thinks the Raiders should sell their soul for Watson and go all in, and I’m sure other teams would love to have a player with a ton of baggage and a ton of talent. Yet still, Houston has made no noise on a possible Watson replacement…until today. According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, Houston should not be ruled out in the possible pursuit of free agent Alex Smith.
Despite his unprecedented success in 2020 upon returning from a catastrophic leg injury, Alex Smith was essentially forced out of Washington as soon as 2020 ended. Since his release, Smith has been waiting for a chance to get back to a starting role at quarterback. Quite a few NFL teams have made their offseason quarterback signings and have filled the holes they have behind center including the Patriots, Rams, Lions, Colts, Bears, etc. But Houston’s situation is one like any other, so they have to prepare for the worst-case scenario, which would involve Deshaun Watson not returning to the NFL, at least for now. After looking at the short list of qualified free-agent quarterbacks, I would say Alex Smith is a very convenient, safe, and cheap option for the Texans. Smith won five out of his six starts with Washington last year and contributed to the Football Team’s first playoff seed since 2015.
Can The Texans Win Now With Smith?
The Texans do not have a terrible roster, at least on the offensive side of the ball. They recently acquired Phillip Lindsay, Mark Ingram, and Tyrod Taylor during the offseason. Houston also still has big names like David Johnson, Brandin Cooks, and Randall Cobb to provide help to Alex Smith, should he become the starter in Houston. I think it is safe to assume that if Alex Smith became the Texans starter, there’s no question they could do better than the embarrassing 4-12 record Houston put up in 2020. Although, Deshaun Watson had a borderline MVP year and they still couldn’t win if their lives depended on it.
I should remind everyone that winning in the AFC South shouldn’t bee too tall of a task, given the fact that the Titans lost a bunch of key players, the Jaguars are still going to be terrible, and Carson Wentz is coming into a new environment in Indianapolis. So again, if someone were to ask me if Alex Smith could lead the Texans to a playoff spot with their current roster and the NFL’s newly implemented 17-game season, I would say yes. Knowing Houston though, they’ll probably just play it safe and move up Tyrod Taylor to the starting role.
